In announcing the lawsuit, filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, City Solicitor Andre Davis said he would personally be part of the team handling the case. Davis, a former federal judge, said the companies marketed the pills knowing they would be “destructive of lives.”

“They were reckless, they were intentional, it was marketing, it was greed,” Davis said.

The City’s lawsuit alleges the defendants funded unethical research, the spread biased and false information, and the failed to report suspicious pill orders. It names Purdue, Cephalon, Janssen, Actavis, Endo Health Solutions, McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, as well as two local doctors that operate pain clinics as defendants.